Today we are delighted to announce that the Social Metrics Commission, hosted within the Legatum Institute’s Centre for Metrics, has met the high standards for statistical rigour set out in the UK Statistic’s Authority Code of Practice.

The Commission is fully committed to adhering to the highest standards for analysis possible, and to ensuring that our new measure offers the most accurate picture of poverty in the UK. The SMC is amongst the first non-government bodies to voluntarily comply with the Authority’s Code of Practice, the current threshold applied to the government’s own official statistics.

Whilst the Commission does not produce official statistics, we hope that by building our approach on these principles, we will make it easier for those who do, to take on our approach as an official statistic in due course.

Our approach to measuring poverty is underpinned by the need to build consensus and trust in our work and the analysis we produce. With that trust, the Commission hopes to play a central role in improving the measurement of poverty in the UK, and as a consequence, drive better outcomes for people and families who are struggling to make ends meet.

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